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Codification
In , codification is the process of collecting and restating the law of a in certain areas, usually by subject, forming a , i.e. a ( ) of law. Codification is one of the of jurisdictions. In systems, such as that of , codification is the process of converting and consolidating into . History Ancient 's was compiled circa 2050–1230 BC, and is the earliest known surviving . Three centuries later, the n king enacted the . Besides religious laws such as the , important codifications were developed in the ancient , with the compilations of the and much later the . These codified laws were the exceptions rather than the rule, however, as during much of ancient times s were left mostly uncodified. The first permanent system of codified laws could be found in .}} , with the compilation of the in AD 624. This formed the basis of the Chinese , which was eventually replaced by the , which was in turn abolished in 1912 following the and the establishment of the . The new were inspired by the German codified work, the . A very influential example in Europe was the French of 1804. Another early system of laws is framed by Manu and called as , dating back to the 2nd century BC. The use of civil codes in Islamic law began with the in the 16th century AD. Civil law jurisdictions jurisdictions rely, , on codification. A notable early example were the , in the 16th century. The movement towards codification gained momentum during the , and was implemented in several European countries during the late 18th century (see ). However, it only became widespread after the enactment of the French (1804), which has heavily influenced the legal systems of many other countries. Common law jurisdictions has been codified in many jurisdictions and in many areas of law: examples include s in many jurisdictions, and include the and the ( ). England and Wales The English judge is renowned as the draftsman of the , the and the , all of which codified existing principles. The Sale of Goods Act was repealed and re-enacted by the in a manner that revealed how sound the 1893 original had been. The Marine Insurance Act (mildly amended) has been a notable success, adopted verbatim in many common law jurisdictions. Most of England's s have been codified, partly because this enables precision and certainty in prosecution. However, large areas of the common law, such as the and the remain remarkably untouched. In the last 80 years there have been statutes that address immediate problems, such as the (which. inter alia, coped with contracts rendered void by war), and the , which amended the . However, there has been no progress on the adoption of 's Contract Code (1993), even though the , together with the Scots Law Commission, asked him to produce a proposal for the comprehensive codification and unification of the contract law of England and Scotland. Similarly, codification in the law of tort has been at best piecemeal, a rare example of progress being the . are routinely passed to organize the law. United States In the United States, , such as federal statutes, are published chronologically in the order in which they become law – often by being signed by the , on an individual basis in official pamphlets called " s", and are grouped together in official bound book form, also chronologically, as " s". The "session law" publication for Federal statutes is called the . Any given act may be only a single page, or hundreds of pages, in length. An act may be classified as either a "Public Law" or a "Private Law". Because each Congressional act may contain laws on a variety of topics, many acts, or portions thereof are also rearranged and published in a topical, subject matter codification by the . The official codification of Federal statutes is called the . Generally, only "Public Laws" are codified. The United States Code is divided into "titles" (based on overall topics) numbered 1 through 54. , for example, contains many of the Federal criminal statutes. Title 26 is the . Even in code form, however, many statutes by their nature pertain to more than one topic. For example, the statute making a felony pertains to both criminal law and tax law, but is found only in the Internal Revenue Code. Other statutes pertaining to taxation are found not in the Internal Revenue Code but instead, for example, in the Bankruptcy Code in , or the Judiciary Code in . Another example is the national minimum drinking age, not found in , Intoxicating liquors, but in , Highways, §158. Further, portions of some Congressional acts, such as the provisions for the effective dates of amendments to codified laws, are themselves not codified at all. These statutes may be found by referring to the acts as published in "slip law" and "session law" form. However, commercial publications that specialize in legal materials often arrange and print the uncodified statutes with the codes to which they pertain. In the United States, the individual states, either officially or through private commercial publishers, generally follow the same three-part model for the publication of their own statutes: slip law, session law, and codification. Rules and regulations that are promulgated by agencies of the are codified as the . These regulations are authorized by specific enabling legislation passed by the legislative branch, and generally have the same force as statutory law. International law codification Following the First World War and the establishment of the , the need for codification of international law arose. In September 1924, the General Assembly of the League established a committee of experts for the purpose of codification of international law, which was defined by the Assembly as consisting of two aspects: * Putting existing customs into written s * Developing further rules In 1930 the League of Nations held at the Hague a for the purpose of codification of rules on general matters, but very little progress was made. Following the Second World War, the was established within the United Nations as a permanent body for the formulation of principles in international law. Canon law codification Papal attempts at codification of the scattered mass of canon law spanned the eight centuries since produced his c. 1150. In the 13th century especially canon law became the object of scientific study, and different compilations were made by the Roman Pontiffs. The most important of these were the five books of the and the of . The legislation grew with time. Some of it became obsolete, and contradictions crept in so that it became difficult in recent times to discover what was of obligation and where to find the law on a particular question. Since the close of the ‘’Corpus Juris’’ numerous new laws and decrees had been issued by popes, councils, and . No complete collection of them had ever been published and they remained scattered through the ponderous volumes of the ‘’Bullaria’’ the ‘’ ’’, and other such compilations, which were accessible to only a few and for professional canonists themselves and formed an unwieldy mass of legal material. Moreover, not a few ordinances, whether included in the ‘’Corpus Juris’’ or of more recent date, appeared to be contradictory; some had been formally abrogated, others had become obsolete by long disuse; others, again, had ceased to be useful or applicable in the present condition of society. Great confusion was thus engendered and correct knowledge of the law rendered very difficult even for those who had to enforce it. When the Vatican Council met in 1869 a number of bishops of different countries petitioned for a new compilation of church law that would be clear and easily studied. The council never finished its work and no attempt was made to bring the legislation up to date. By the 19th Century, this body of legislation included some 10,000 norms. Many of these were difficult to reconcile with one another due to changes in circumstances and practice. In response to the request of the bishops at the , on 14 May 1904, with the Arduum sane munus ("A Truly Arduous Task"), set up a commission to begin reducing these diverse documents into a single code, presenting the normative portion in the form of systematic short canons shorn of the preliminary considerations ("Whereas...") and omitting those parts that had been superseded by later developments. By the winter of 1912, the "whole span of the code" had been completed, so that a provisional text was printed. The 1912 text was sent out to all Latin bishops and superiors general for their comment, and their notations which they sent back to the codification commission were subsequently printed and distributed to all members of the commission, in order that the members might carefully consider the suggestions. The new code was completed in 1916. Under the aegis of Cardinal , the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law was completed under , Pius X's successor, who promulgated it on 27 May 1917 as the Code of Canon Law (Latin: Codex Iuris Canonici) and set 19 May 1918 as the date on which it came into force.In its preparation centuries of material were examined, scrutinized for authenticity by leading experts, and harmonized as much as possible with opposing canons and even other codes, from the to the . It contained 2,414 canons and was in force until Canon 6 §1 1° of the took legal effect—thereby it—on 27 November 1983. Recodification Recodification refers to a process where existing codified statutes are reformatted and rewritten into a new codified structure. This is often necessary as, over time, the legislative process of amending statutes and the legal process of construing statutes by nature over time results in a code that contains archaic terms, superseded text, and redundant or conflicting statutes. Due to the size of a typical government code, the legislative process of recodification of a code can often take a decade or longer. United States Code Titles that have been enacted into are indicated by blue shading below. Titles whose laws have been repealed are indicated by red shading below. Notes References Category:Civilization